Lead Data Scientist, AI Enablement (Remote)

About the team

Symetra's AI Enablement team is a fast-growing team of builders inside our Data Analytics organization. Our goal is to accelerate AI adoption across the company in two ways: by building shared platforms, tooling, and patterns that let other teams effectively integrate AI into their workflows, and by shipping AI-powered applications for the most important use cases.

 

We work in small, cross-functional teams, build with the people who use what we make, and move fast. Our first product in production, docstream, is an AI-powered document-processing platform that currently supports several of Symetra's back-end operational processes. We plan to continue to iterate on docstream and to build out other products using the same modular architecture, integrating third-party products where it makes sense.

 

About the role

As a Lead Data Scientist, you'll own the AI and machine learning behind our products: framing the problems, choosing the approaches, and building and evaluating the models (classic ML and LLM-based) that make our products work. You'll set the standard for how we do data science on the team, mentor other data scientists, and partner closely with the engineers and stakeholders building alongside you.

 

What you will do

• Frame business and product questions, and define how we'll measure success.
• Build and evaluate models that power our AI products, from classic ML to LLM-based systems (RAG, agents).
• Own projects end to end, and recommend where to focus next.
• Set the standard for evaluations, guardrails, and prompting across our LLM systems, and champion data science best practices.
• Mentor data scientists and partner closely with the engineers building our products.

 

Who You Are

• An experienced data scientist (typically 8+ years) who has owned modeling work end to end.
• Deep expertise in statistics, machine learning, and model development.
• Strong with modern AI: LLMs, RAG, agents, prompt engineering, evaluation, and guardrails.
• Python and SQL, and a track record of getting models into production.
• Use AI coding agents effectively in your day-to-day work, with the judgment to know when to use them and when not to.

 

Nice to Haves

• Building and scaling LLM-powered systems in production.
• Document understanding, NLP, or other unstructured-data experience.
• A track record of mentoring data scientists and leading technical direction.

Qualifications

Why Work at Symetra

Here’s what some of our employees have to say about why they work at Symetra:

 

“Symetra is a great place if you are looking for the opportunity to contribute, to grow, to be seen and valued.” Vernell K. – Auditor  

 

“We're big enough to make an impact on the country, but small enough to care and know who you are and what you're contributing to the organization. All new ideas are welcome!” Stephanie F. – VP Customer Service & Operations

 

What we offer you

Benefits and Perks

We don’t take a “one-size-fits-all” approach when it comes to our employees. Our programs are designed to make your life better both at work and at home.

• Flexible full-time or hybrid telecommuting arrangements
• Plan for your future with our 401(k) plan and take advantage of immediate vesting and company matching up to 6%
• Paid time away including vacation and sick time, flex days and ten paid holidays
• Give back to your community and double your impact through our company matching
• Want more details? Check out our Symetra Benefits Overview

 

Compensation

Salary Range: $128,700 - $214,600 plus eligibility for annual bonus program  

 

Please review Symetra’s Remote Network Minimum Requirements:

As a remote-first organization committed to providing a positive experience for both